Scott Brown won the Senate race in Massachusetts in spite of a nude pictorial in a 1982 Cosmopolitan magazine spread that made his detractors titter. Here's a look at other politicians who emerged victorious despite past indiscretions

George W. Bush

By Frances RomeroThursday, Jan. 21, 2010

PAUL BUCK / AFP / Getty

During his 2000 presidential campaign, the Republican governor of Texas openly admitted that during the '70s and '80s, he would often drink too much. But he insisted that after his 40th birthday, in 1986, he quit booze altogether. The year before, he had met with pastor Billy Graham and resolved to become more God-fearing and pious. His past stayed behind him until just before Election Day, when news broke that Bush had been arrested in Maine in 1976 for driving under the influence of alcohol. The story was largely dismissed as a cynical tactic to hurt Bush's chances. He admitted that the reports were true soon after the story came to light but went on to become the 43rd President.